Newshttp://projects.iq.harvard.edu/tut/news
enFirst Case Selectionhttp://projects.iq.harvard.edu/tut/news/2014-case-study-selection
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span>In 2014, we selected Stockholm, Seoul and Mexico City as our initial case study cities. From introducing congestion charges in a charged political context of opposition from automobile users, to implementing Bus Rapid Transit against the wishes of small private transport providers, to removing highways and building extensive subway networks for the purposes of making a high-tech city of the future, these three cases afford an opportunity to examine the interactions between transport modalities, land use changes, political conflicts, and urban development strategies more generally. Concurrent research on Paris, London, Stuttgart, Portland, Los Angeles, São Paulo, and Philadelphia inform the project’s larger aims.</span></p></div></div></div>Tue, 30 Sep 2014 20:33:58 +0000antyaw279716 at http://projects.iq.harvard.eduPublic-private funding for Hubway paying off: City in line for more profit in Year 4http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/tut/news/public-private-funding-hubway-paying-city-line-more-profit-year-4
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h2><span style="font-size:small">By <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/staff/powersm"><cite>Martine Powers </cite></a>| Globe Staff April 07, 2014</span></h2>
<p>For some bike-share programs in North America, it was a winter of discontent. In January, Montreal’s bike-share program Bixi filed for bankruptcy. Then, last month, reports surfaced that the operators of New York’s Citi Bike had asked for tens of millions of dollars in aid from the City of New York.</p>
<p><span><img height="464" width="665" class="media-element file-default file-os-files-xlarge" src="//static.projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/styles/os_files_xlarge/public/tut/files/maeda_03hubway_met2.jpg?itok=Bqugtrzg" alt="" title="" /></span></p>
<p>But in Boston last week, Hubway opened for its fourth season with a rosy financial prognosis, a fresh contract between the City of Boston and bike-share operators, an expectation that the system will continue turning a profit, and plans for 10 new stations.</p>
<p>“We’re in a very, very solid financial place,” said Nicole Freedman, director of the city’s Boston Bikes program. “We’re in a position to fund expansion.”</p>
<p>Some have attributed Hubway’s success to its more conservative choices — closing for winter and launching with a compact system that spread cautiously — as well as its dependence on both public and private money.</p>
<p>“Bike share systems in Boston, Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C., all of which started relatively small and relied on public sector funds, were able to launch with success, iron out kinks, stabilize, and expand quickly,” said Mia Birk, Hubway Bike Share vice president.</p>
<p>Now, Boston will pay a lower rate for bike-share operations with a new contract that stands to allow the city to collect larger profits.</p>
<p>Previously Boston divided the costs of operating the system 50-50 with Alta Bicycle Share, the contractor that operates and maintains the system’s bikes, stations, software, and memberships. Boston uses public grant money, along with private sponsorships, to pay the city’s share without dipping into municipal coffers — and up until now, Alta and Boston have split the profits in half. It was a risk-sharing model favored by former mayor Thomas M. Menino, who was wary of placing the city on the hook if forays into bike share fell flat, Freedman said.</p>
<p>Now, Boston will pay Alta for the full operations cost, but in turn, the city will take all of the profits from membership fees and advertising — a sign that city officials are confident in the bike-share program’s continued profitability. And the city is getting Alta’s services at a new, lower rate: Boston will pay the company about $70 per bike dock per month for maintenance and operations, about a 30 percent reduction from previous operation rates, and well below the average price for other bike-share systems, such as the $111 rate paid by Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>The cities of Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline — some of which use municipal dollars to help pay their share — are considering whether to switch to Boston’s funding model.</p>
<p>Hubway’s diversified funding approach has been championed by some as the most stable option.</p>
<p>In January, Bixi, the company that operated bike shares in Montreal and Toronto and also manufactures bike-share equipment, filed for bankruptcy protection. The City of Montreal, which is owed about $30 million from Bixi, has seized the company’s Montreal assets. The City of Toronto has taken over its own bike-share operations.</p>
<p>And New York’s Citi Bike — widely touted for being funded entirely through private sponsorships and membership fees — is now seeking tens of millions of dollars from the City of New York to maintain and expand operations, according to <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304256404579451770072629130">a report by the Wall Street Journal</a>. Citi Bike, also operated by Alta, has proven popular with residents, but a faulty software system and sparse winter ridership <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/nyregion/as-citi-bike-approaches-anniversary-worries-abound.html?_r=0">incited financial concerns</a>.</p>
<p>“As with any new industry, there are challenges,” Alta officials said in a statement, adding that the challenges are fixable “and we are working diligently to fix them.”</p>
<p>But some, such as Caroline Samponaro, senior director for campaigns and organizing at Transportation Alternatives, a New York City transit advocacy group, think that Citi Bike should adopt Hubway’s model, incorporating corporate sponsorships and public money.</p>
<p>Starting the system without public funding was necessary in a city where naysayers threatened to prevent the bike share from getting off the ground, she said. But, she continued, government funding is now necessary to ensure stations spread evenly across the city’s neighborhoods.</p>
<p>“It’s a new thing to think about bike share as a public transit system, but now that’s where we are, and it’s important to bring some amount of subsidy so our program can grow to a scale that’s equitable,” Samponaro said.</p>
<p>Encouraging an equitable distribution of bikes and stations is also a problem in Boston, where large swaths — East Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, and Hyde Park — have few or no stations.</p>
<p>This year, Cambridge embarked on a pilot to test how the system would fare during the winter. Emily Stapleton, Hubway general manager, said ridership in Cambridge was 15 to 20 percent of regular season averages. And there were no Hubway crashes through the winter — a sign of success, said Cara Seiderman, Cambridge’s transportation program manager.</p>
<p>“It was a very tough winter, and counter to what you might expect, we were very happy about it,” Seiderman said. “It gave us the opportunity to do exactly what we wanted to do with this pilot, figuring out what happens when you have cold and difficult winter.”</p>
<p>Still, Cambridge officials have not decided whether year-round service will be permanent. Likewise, Freedman said a decision has not been made on whether Boston will experiment with an all-seasons operation. With fewer winter riders, she said, each ride becomes more expensive, and that is money that could also be used to expand the system into other neighborhoods. Instead of going year-round, she conjectured, the off-season could be shortened to just January and February.</p>
<p>“It really comes down to cost and benefit,” Freedman said. “And if we have a limited amount of money, how do we use that money?”</p>
<p><em>Martine Powers can be reached at <a href="mailto:martine.powers@globe.com">martine.powers@globe.com</a>. Follow her on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/martinepowers">@martinepowers</a>.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/04/06/for-hubway-optimism-abounds-fourth-season/WbfqHXsKNezCeLUCzL18cM/story.html">Source</a></em></p></div></div></div>Mon, 07 Apr 2014 14:42:07 +0000antyaw181461 at http://projects.iq.harvard.eduUse of Public Transit in U.S. Reaches Highest Level Since 1956, Advocates Reporthttp://projects.iq.harvard.edu/tut/news/use-public-transit-us-reaches-highest-level-1956-advocates-report
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div>
<p><span style="font-size:x-small"><span>By <span>JON HURDLE</span></span>MARCH 10, 2014</span></p>
</div>
<p>PHILADELPHIA — More Americans used buses, trains and subways in 2013 than in any year since 1956 as service improved, local economies grew and travelers increasingly sought alternatives to the automobile for trips within metropolitan areas, the <a href="http://www.apta.com/mediacenter/pressreleases/2014/Pages/140310_Ridership.aspx" title="Website.">American Public Transportation Association</a> said in a report released on Monday.</p>
<p><span><img height="204" width="675" class="media-element file-default file-os-files-xlarge" src="//static.projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/styles/os_files_xlarge/public/tut/files/transit-master675.jpg?itok=q8Ts34Jp" alt="" title="" /></span></p>
<p>The trade group said in its annual report that 10.65 billion passenger trips were taken on transit systems during the year, surpassing the post-1950s peak of 10.59 billion in 2008, when gas prices rose to $4 to $5 a gallon.</p>
<p>The ridership in 2013, when gas prices were lower than in 2008, undermines the conventional wisdom that transit use rises when those prices exceed a certain threshold, and suggests that other forces are bolstering enthusiasm for public transportation, said Michael Melaniphy, the president of the association.</p>
<p>“Now gas is averaging well under $4 a gallon, the economy is coming back and people are riding transit in record numbers,” Mr. Melaniphy said in an interview. “We’re seeing a fundamental shift in how people are moving about their communities.”</p>
<p>From 1995 to 2013, transit ridership rose 37 percent, well ahead of a 20 percent growth in population and a 23 percent increase in vehicle miles traveled, according to the association’s data.</p>
<p>Stronger economic growth is playing an important role in the increased use of public transit, as more people are using the systems to get to an increasing number of jobs, the association reported, and transit agencies are nurturing growth by expanding their systems or improving services.</p>
<p>“We’re seeing that where cities have invested in transit, their unemployment rates have dropped, and employment is going up because people can get there,” Mr. Melaniphy said.</p>
<p>Overall public transit ridership increased by 1.1 percent from 2012, with the biggest gains in rail service and in bus service for smaller cities.</p>
<p>In New York, where use of all modes of transit in the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/metropolitan_transportation_authority/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the N.Y. Metropolitan Transportation Authority.">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a> increased 3.6 percent last year, according to the data, ridership has been bolstered by falling unemployment and improved service, said Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the authority.</p>
<p>The system is also being increasingly used during off-peak times, especially by younger people, who are encouraged by promotions like free transfers between subways and buses and by a decline in crime in the city, Mr. Ortiz said.</p>
<p>In Denver, the Regional Transit District topped 101 million passenger trips last year, its most ever, helped by an improving economy and an increasing acceptance that public transit is an attractive alternative to the automobile, said Scott Reed, a spokesman for the district.</p>
<p>One of the challenges is simply getting people to try public transportation, Mr. Reed said, but when they do, “they find it is so much easier than they had feared.”</p>
<p>The 14-mile light-rail W Line connecting Denver, Lakewood and Golden, Colo., opened in April, and by the end of the year, it was carrying about 15,000 passengers a day, as planned. The line is part of a <a href="http://www.rtd-denver.com/iamfastracks.shtml" title="More about FasTracks.">FasTracks</a> expansion program, which will consist of 122 additional miles of light and commuter rail, 18 miles of a bus rapid transit system and a doubling of park-and-ride facilities, all scheduled for completion in 2016.</p>
<p>The estimated $7 billion cost is being paid for in part with a 0.4 percent sales tax, which voters approved in 2004. Nationally, taxpayers are increasingly willing to finance public transportation improvements, Mr. Melaniphy said.</p>
<p>In the last two years, more than 70 percent of transit tax initiatives have succeeded, he said.</p>
<p>Todd Litman, an analyst at the <a href="http://www.vtpi.org/" title="Website.">Victoria Transport Policy Institute</a> in Victoria, British Columbia, said the new data were the latest indication of changing consumer preferences as a result of increasing urbanization, an aging population, and environmental and health concerns.</p>
<p>“A lot of people would prefer to drive less and rely more on walking, cycling and public transit, provided that those are high-quality options,” Mr. Litman said.</p>
<div>
<div><em><strong> Correction: March 11, 2014 </strong> </em><br /><p><em>Because of an editing error, an article on Monday about the use of public transit in the United States having reached its highest level since 1956 misstated the number of passenger trips taken on transit systems in 2008. It was 10.59 billion, not million</em>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<p>PHILADELPHIA — More Americans used buses, trains and subways in 2013 than in any year since 1956 as service improved, local economies grew and travelers increasingly sought alternatives to the automobile for trips within metropolitan areas, the <a href="http://www.apta.com/mediacenter/pressreleases/2014/Pages/140310_Ridership.aspx" title="Website.">American Public Transportation Association</a> said in a report released on Monday.</p>
<p>The trade group said in its annual report that 10.65 billion passenger trips were taken on transit systems during the year, surpassing the post-1950s peak of 10.59 billion in 2008, when gas prices rose to $4 to $5 a gallon.</p>
<p>The ridership in 2013, when gas prices were lower than in 2008, undermines the conventional wisdom that transit use rises when those prices exceed a certain threshold, and suggests that other forces are bolstering enthusiasm for public transportation, said Michael Melaniphy, the president of the association.</p>
<p>“Now gas is averaging well under $4 a gallon, the economy is coming back and people are riding transit in record numbers,” Mr. Melaniphy said in an interview. “We’re seeing a fundamental shift in how people are moving about their communities.”</p>
<p>From 1995 to 2013, transit ridership rose 37 percent, well ahead of a 20 percent growth in population and a 23 percent increase in vehicle miles traveled, according to the association’s data.</p>
<p>Stronger economic growth is playing an important role in the increased use of public transit, as more people are using the systems to get to an increasing number of jobs, the association reported, and transit agencies are nurturing growth by expanding their systems or improving services.</p>
<p>“We’re seeing that where cities have invested in transit, their unemployment rates have dropped, and employment is going up because people can get there,” Mr. Melaniphy said.</p>
<p>Overall public transit ridership increased by 1.1 percent from 2012, with the biggest gains in rail service and in bus service for smaller cities.</p>
<p>In New York, where use of all modes of transit in the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/metropolitan_transportation_authority/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the N.Y. Metropolitan Transportation Authority.">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a> increased 3.6 percent last year, according to the data, ridership has been bolstered by falling unemployment and improved service, said Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the authority.</p>
<p>The system is also being increasingly used during off-peak times, especially by younger people, who are encouraged by promotions like free transfers between subways and buses and by a decline in crime in the city, Mr. Ortiz said.</p>
<p>In Denver, the Regional Transit District topped 101 million passenger trips last year, its most ever, helped by an improving economy and an increasing acceptance that public transit is an attractive alternative to the automobile, said Scott Reed, a spokesman for the district.</p>
<p>One of the challenges is simply getting people to try public transportation, Mr. Reed said, but when they do, “they find it is so much easier than they had feared.”</p>
<p>The 14-mile light-rail W Line connecting Denver, Lakewood and Golden, Colo., opened in April, and by the end of the year, it was carrying about 15,000 passengers a day, as planned. The line is part of a <a href="http://www.rtd-denver.com/iamfastracks.shtml" title="More about FasTracks.">FasTracks</a> expansion program, which will consist of 122 additional miles of light and commuter rail, 18 miles of a bus rapid transit system and a doubling of park-and-ride facilities, all scheduled for completion in 2016.</p>
<p>The estimated $7 billion cost is being paid for in part with a 0.4 percent sales tax, which voters approved in 2004. Nationally, taxpayers are increasingly willing to finance public transportation improvements, Mr. Melaniphy said.</p>
<p>In the last two years, more than 70 percent of transit tax initiatives have succeeded, he said.</p>
<p>Todd Litman, an analyst at the <a href="http://www.vtpi.org/" title="Website.">Victoria Transport Policy Institute</a> in Victoria, British Columbia, said the new data were the latest indication of changing consumer preferences as a result of increasing urbanization, an aging population, and environmental and health concerns.</p>
<p>“A lot of people would prefer to drive less and rely more on walking, cycling and public transit, provided that those are high-quality options,” Mr. Litman said.</p>
<div>
<div><em><span style="font-size:small"><strong> Correction: March 11, 2014 </strong> </span></em><br /><p><em><span style="font-size:small">Because of an editing error, an article on Monday about the use of public transit in the United States having reached its highest level since 1956 misstated the number of passenger trips taken on transit systems in 2008. It was 10.59 billion, not million.</span></em></p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size:small">A version of this article appears in print on March 10, 2014, on page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Use of Public Transit in U.S. Reaches Highest Level Since 1956, Advocates Report.</span> <span><span></span> </span></p>
</div>
<p><span><span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/us/use-of-public-transit-in-us-reaches-highest-level-since-1956-advocates-report.html">Source</a></span> </span></p>
</div></div></div></div>Mon, 07 Apr 2014 14:53:52 +0000antyaw181486 at http://projects.iq.harvard.edu